1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a device and terminal for communicably connecting a user-owned portable terminal and multiple printing devices situated at various localities via a network, receiving data printing requests from the portable terminal, and outputting data relating to the data printing requests to one of the printing devices. Particularly, the present invention relates to a data output control device and portable terminal suitably used for readily obtaining detailed information on a network.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, information on the Internet can be readily obtained at any location by using i-mode (Registered Trademark) provided by NTT DoCoMo, Inc., for example. However, with such portable terminals, while information on the Internet can be readily obtained at any location, the display capabilities are usually of a simple configuration due to considerations such as reduction in size of the portable terminal and reduction in power consumption and so forth. Therefore, the information displayed is quite simplified as compared to that displayed on a normal personal computer, and does not come close to providing information which sufficiently satisfies the users.
Accordingly, a proposal can be made for an arrangement for obtaining detailed information while maintaining the small size and reduction in power consumption of the portable terminal, by combining a portable terminal with a printing device, so as to display general information on the portable terminal and print detailed information with the printing device. However, there are several problems which must be technically solved for such an arrangement combining a portable terminal with a printing device.
For example, a printing device can be large and not readily carried along with a portable terminal, so printing detailed information using a printing device set up in the home or office can be conceived. However, by using such a fixed particular printing device, information is far from being readily obtainable at any location. Accordingly, in order to realize portable printing there is the need to either reduce the printing device to a portable level, or to arrange for arbitrary printer devices to be used. In the case of the former, it is extremely difficult to technologically realize this at the current state, so this is not realistic. In the case of the later, unique drivers are necessary for each printing device, so drivers for all printing devices to be used must be installed in the portable terminal, which also is not realistic.